Watch Your Backup

Home Office Computing, Oct, 1999 by Dave Johnson

A host of office disasters can be avoided by performing one elementary task: backing up your data

NO ONE ENJOYS TASKS LIKE ROTATING TIRES, FLOSSING teeth, or backing up data. But if you ignore such essential routines, one day you'll wake up with a flat tire, a mouthful of cavities, or a business in shambles. It's your choice--and because proper PC backup can take even less time than nightly flossing, it should be an easy one.

Evaluate Your Needs It doesn't really matter what kind of backup system you choose, as long as you stick to it; but the choice still gives home office workers some pause. These days, you have two backup options: online or on-site backup. If you choose to perform onsite backup using a local tape drive or hard disk, you also need to decide whether to back up everything--including all your applications--or just your data.

The simplest way to back up your system's entire drive is to install a second hard disk and employ either a disk mirroring system or a disk image utility. An example of the former is Arco Computer Products' DupliDisk hardware controller ($250; www.arcoide.com, 954-925-2688), which works transparently to maintain a second IDE hard disk that's a clone of the first.

Image backups copy an entire drive, sector by sector, catching certain kinds of files--like hidden and system files--that traditional backup software can miss. Image utilities were originally created for corporate offices to deploy scores of identically configured PCs, but up-to-date images also make it easy for an individual user to transfer files to a new hard disk quickly and painlessly.

A disk image program such as Norton Ghost 2000 Personal Edition ($63; Symantec Corp., 800-441-7234, www.symantec.com) lets you clone disks or partitions from one internal drive to another, from a hard disk to removable media, or between networked PCs.

Data-only backups are faster and easier, though you'll have to reinstall your applications from the original CD-ROMs after a crash. If you want to back up only data files, almost any backup program will do, including the one that ships with the storage device you bought for backup. Because data backups take relatively little time, get in the habit of doing them regularly--ideally, leaving your computer on overnight while your software's scheduling function performs an unattended backup.

Choose Your Weapon You can select from a variety of mass-storage media, including tape, removable drives, or CD-Recordable (CD-R). Tape backup, long the traditional choice, seems to be entering the twilight of its career; conventional tape drives can often prove inconvenient or finicky, delivering only failure messages after a long night of backing up data. And because data is backed up to tape sequentially, files located in the middle of the session can be tough to access. Still, if backing up massive amounts of data is a necessity, don't overlook OnStream's Internal IDE ($300; 800-759-4621, www.onstream. com), a streaming backup system that holds as much as 30GB of data on a single tape. It's ideal for making complete images of your drives.

If you have just a few data files to back up, try using Iomega's Zip drive ($130 for the 100MB version; 800-MY-STUFF, www.iomega.com). It comes in both 100MB and 250MB varieties, letting you save important data on just a few cartridges.

If you need more storage space and don't like swapping media in the middle of a backup, look into Castlewood Systems' new Orb drive ($200; 925-461-5500, www.castlewoodsystems.com), which stores 2.2GB on a hard disk cartridge. That's enough for securing essential data or making a complete image of smaller drives.

Although it's rarely enough to back up an entire drive, a CD-R drive such as Hewlett-Packard's CD-Writer Plus 8100i ($300; 800-752-0900, www. hp. com) is an excellent way to make virtually permanent, nearly indestructible backups of important data that can be reinstalled on any computer with a CD-ROM drive. Erasable, reusable CD-RW technology is handier for everyday use, but cheaper CD-R is ideal for backup.

Save It on the Net Any storage expert will tell you: Don't keep all your backups lying around the office, where they can be stolen or destroyed along with the PC. An Internet-era variation on off-site backup is becoming increasingly popular: online backup. For a fee, you can upload your data to a secure server; you can later download it as needed or, if your modem and Internet connection aren't fast enough to transfer more than a few vital files at a time, request a CD-ROM with a copy of your data.

Most online backup services allot you a few megabytes of virtual storage space (and generally don't back up applications, because you can restore those from CD-ROM). A well-known example is @Backup (800-344-2000, www.atbackup.com). For $99 per year, @Backup gives you up to 100MB of server space to back up your data. Automated software backs up your data each evening after business hours, or whenever you prefer.

Another alternative is Intel's AnswerExpress Support Suite ($100 per year; 888-795-7357, www.intel.com/ answerexpress). It combines online backup with virus protection, technical support, and a knowledge base of information about common applications.